Eternal Nature
by Rylkan
Summary: Some seek eternal life and power. Those that achieve it though can never go back. To prevent the kind who desires this power is easy. To stop those that already possess it takes considerably more sacrifice. AdventureAdventure & RomanceNaruxHina, Various
1. To Sound with New Friends

(Naruto and all it's licensing belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.)

This is a story centered around Naruto and Hinata is what I will preface this story with. It will definitely include other characters as the story progresses, but the main focus is on these two characters. I know some of you may of come for the romance portion of this story between these two, and I don't blame you, I love this pairing as well, but this is a primarily action and adventure based story, though it will have it's fill of romance to be sure.

To those who wish to know where I am beginning this story, it starts with some mild changes to the point in time in the manga which Naruto has begun further Rasengan training. I won't say anymore should there be someone who watches the anime and wishes not to have it spoiled, you may want to leave now, since this story takes place after the infamous time skip.

One final note before the story starts, the character may seem OOC to some of you, though personally I do not feel this way. Any sense of this is due to two facts, one is that I feel that after the time skip we have seen a definitely more serious nature to the cast of Naruto and it isn't surprising that they may of changed a small amount. The other is that this is a work to polish my rusty writing skills, so any further out of character moments is probably a result of my own inability to properly capture the essence I had at least imagined for them.

With that said an done, the important notes will be saved for the end of the chapter, where hopefully I can settle questions that may arise after reading this without ruining the story for all of you. So without anymore boring words from me, let's begin.

(I apologize about the horrible formatting of the document, seems to of learned how to annoy people quite effectively.)

**Eternal Nature** : By Rylkan

Current Version at: 1/7/06

The first word many ninjas would say when made to honestly describe Hyuuga Hiashi would be words that described a cold regal individual. His ability to carry himself was as if a stone statue of a man had learned the secret to walking and interacting with other humans, albeit only those it considered worthy of his time. His controlled emotions were enough to take even the most seasoned ninja to a degree of fear that they could only experience when facing the most powerful of opponents, and his lethal grace with which he performed the most difficult of his clan's techniques only made this fear all the more founded.

Compared to the Hiashi that stood before them however, the cold hard man they once knew seemed as kind as a Saint, and the tears that streamed down his normally stoic face would only serve to intensify their fears. Nothing they could imagine could bring such a man down from his emotional pedestal to show so much anger in his eyes while he wept, nothing they could have imagined before now could cause the man to look as ready for murder as at that moment.

The only thing that stopped others from fleeing in terror were their own tears, and their own dark and hurt expressions were too all consuming to let them notice that it was shared by everyone else there. It would be spoken of for many years that the atmosphere at the burial of Hyuuga Hinata and Uzumaki Naruto was one of the grimmest moments in the history of Konohagakure.

Only two people stood away from the empty caskets devoted to the two heroes' of Konoha, the years of loss having taught them how to hide their sorrows, even if inside their time hardened spirits they felt as if they were breaking under the grief. The two remaining Sannin of Konoha could only watch as their caskets were lowered into the ground, the body of a son and student, and that of a kind young girl, were put to an end before they had a chance to experience life to it's fullest.

"The end of the fucking snake and the return of his pupil can't be worth this much, even if it means the end of our war against sound, not this." Tsunade's voice was raspy, and Jiraiya was sure she must have been crying while out of the public eye, her body beginning to tremble a bit as she got the words out, her tight control of her emotions beginning to ravel.

Jiraiya looked over at her and kept his words of comfort to himself, having so few and, truthfully, not really feeling like sparing them on Tsunade at the moment. He himself was close to losing what control over his emotions he had, and the only thing stopping him was his utter exhaustion. Without the energy that Naruto brought to him, even to the village alone, he felt every moment of his long life beginning to weigh down on him. When the Yondaime had died, he was still young enough to pry himself out of his despair, but as he had gotten older it was harder to just go on with life, it was wrong for the younger generation to go before him, and he wasn't sure if we was glad or not that he probably wouldn't be around long enough for another generation to pass before him.

"You still owe me an explanation of what happened, Tsunade." He waited until she managed to make eye contact with him, and despite understanding that he could very well alienate the Hokage from the village once more continued with his thoughts. "You owe me an explanation as to why you sent him off to die like that."

Normally the sight of Tsunade cringing might of made him fear for his well being, but he just couldn't bring himself to care about what she might end up trying to do to him at the moment. "Meet me in my office so I can explain" he had barely heard her when she spoke and had to strain to hear the rest of her plea, "just please listen to what happened."

Nodding he turned around in the direction of the Hokage's tower, intent on getting that explanation now, and giving her no time nor mercy in this matter.

Gone was the kind old pervert that everyone saw in Jiraiya but instead he was wearing the same unemotional mask he wore on missions, one that was ready for the truth, despite however grim and unwanted it may be. Slowly, so as to make sure she did not miss it he addressed her one last time "Although, I doubt I will forgive you for this" and took off towards the tower.

At this point, had anyone not been absorbed by the burial and had looked to see their leader and guide through these dark times, they would of seen the Godaime Hokage crying as her genjutsu began to fade under her tears.

**OOO**

Tenten took a seat on the boulder that sat on the edge of Team Gai's normal training area, enjoying the cool breeze that was playing through the clearing. She knew without saying when a pair of arms slid around her waist just who they belonged to, letting Neji place his head in the crook of her neck as they both sat there, enjoying the comfort that they both could give each other when something bad occurred to either one of them.

She hadn't been particularly close to either Naruto-kun or Hinata-chan, although she had met Hinata a few times after the rift between Neji and the main house and begun to be mended, and she was fond of the shy younger girl. As such, she couldn't say that to lose them was one of the worst things things that could of happened to her, for that would be exaggerating the situation, but she did know them well enough to feel deeply regretful about their fate. She also knew though that unlike her, it must be killing Neji to have the two taken from him, especially when he had been captain of the mission that ended their lives.

Before his defeat at the hands of Naruto, Neji had chosen to keep all of his emotions buried, showing the world a facade of cool indifference to hide his feelings towards being a branch member of the Hyuuga Clan. The only thing she had ever seen him show any emotion towards as enjoyment at crushing the spirits of those he deemed weaker than he for trying to fight against their own hardships. She was sure that it had been annoying to Neji that if he was such a genius among his peers yet unable to escape what he had been born into, how could those with less skill than himself hope to proceed past their own struggles.

Had it not been for his match against Naruto-kun there would have existed the very real possibility that he would have remained that way the rest of his life. Ever since the surprising climax of their fight Neji had grown to respect the will power Naruto-kun had used to fight against a stronger opponent, and for that, despite their obvious differences in character, he had become a strong supporter of the boisterous blond. Without him, Neji had lost a role model, someone he could look to when he felt chained down by those things he felt he couldn't fight against and somehow find more power in himself to try harder once more.

With the death of Hinata though, she feared that it was as if he too had died a little when she had passed away. For a man who had spent his entire life being made to serve and protect someone, to have that same person become your friend and be one of the few sources of kindness in a world as structured and unforgiving as his clan was devastating.

So she did all she could for him, she let him take comfort in being close to her, never prying him for information about what happened, not putting him in any way an uncomfortable situation where he would have to confront what happened before he was ready.

Despite the years they had spent together on the same team, and the countless times that they had saved each others lives on missions, and now the romance they shared, she was still unable to fully pierce the shell he had built to protect himself from the world. She wished she could help him more, but she knew he would have to sort these feelings out himself, and beyond being forced to report what happened to the Hokage, no one else should be trying to pry into what happened until he was ready.

"I was right about Naruto this whole time. He did have better eyes than me." Turning herself around in his grip she looked at him and watched as he seemed to be searching for the words he wanted to say. "I was right about his eyes being the only one to bring that traitor back from the dark." For an instant she saw a flash of anger cross over his face before he managed to control himself again. If she knew Hyuuga Neji as well as she hoped she did, she was sure that he felt that Sasuke's was the blame for all of this. Though she wasn't really sure why the Hokage had put this much effort into bringing back one missing nin, she had to agree as well, had they left the traitor to that snake, no one would have to be mourning right now.

"I was right about how those eyes could change people as well." This part was new to Tenten, of course she knew that Neji admired the boy and thanked him for his new way of looking at life, but for him to admit it was something short of amazing. "You should have seen the way in which Hinata fought when he was there to motivate her. Far more than our fights from the Chuunin exam years back, she was beyond incredible; she would have put any of us to shame with how hard she fought the enemy."

Placing her hand on his cheek she locked eyes with the raven haired boy. It hurt her to see him this broken after loosing two of his most important people. "I know you're proud of her Neji, we all are. She was much stronger than she was ever given credit for, but you can't blame yourself as captain for what happened. Against such a powerful opponent, you can't expect such an easy victory as to not lose anyone on your team."

Placing his hand over her own he brought her hand away from his face and his gaze narrowed a bit in what she could only describe as frustration. "I meant it when I said she would put all of us to shame. She and Naruto both managed to beat him through their combined efforts while the rest of us were unable to do anything to help. True, he made the mistake for underestimating their powers, but they forced him to meet his fate for such a mistake. However, he was as vindictive as he was powerful."

Sighing he backed away from Ten Ten and took a seat beside her instead. "I can only promise to tell you as much as I have been allowed to by the Hokage, you realize." Nodding her head she listened as Neji detailed the final rescue mission attempt for missing nin Uchiha Sasuke.

**OOO**

Neji had to keep himself from yelling at the blond. Yelling and losing one's temper was not what a good leader did when working with his team, a good leader would be calm and reasonable about discussing matters of concern with his team when not under immediate duress. He had learned this when he had become Jounin, a piece of history that he was fast starting to forget while trying to reason with the annoying blond.

"This is final Naruto. I was put in charge of this mission and I expect you to abide by the mission guidelines I have set. You will not leave the team to engage the target until we have made contact and I have given you permission. Is this understood?"

He could tell Naruto did not understand as his face screwed his face up in frustration. "But but but, if he knows we're coming he won't let us near him. If I sneak after him he won't expect it if you guys are making a big diversion!"

Sighing, Neji gestured back at the camp they had set up, currently around 50 feet behind them. Naruto showing the rare foresight to pick this argument out of earshot of the rest of the team and they had come out here to have their discussion. "Have you thought about our team Naruto? Along with what is left of your Rookie Nine along with Lee and me, we are going straight into the heart of the sound territory. While we are all indeed very strong, I am forced to admit you have the most stamina and chakra of the group, and as such it is your job to make sure to protect those who can no longer fight." Raising his eyebrow he looked at Naruto's torn expression, deciding to finish the argument quickly, "Or was your promise of protecting your friends just empty words yelled to impress us all?"

He knew it was a cheap shot at Naruto's character, and as much as he respected the will power Naruto had, quite frankly he found the blonde's antics to be annoying most of the time, and did not wish to trade words with him on something that he would not change his mind about. He wanted everyone on his team to come back alive, and he knew so did Naruto, so as captain he would do whatever it took to get Naruto to act on that desire.

**OOO**

Naruto couldn't help but gawk at the raven haired boy, that was a cheap shot! Of course he wanted to bring everyone back alive and he would make sure that he didn't let any of them die if all he had to do was be there to guard them. At the same time though he couldn't let their last attempt at Sasuke fail, he knew the other boy even after all these years. He would see the trouble as not worthy of his time and he would leave if he could, and he wouldn't be able to keep his promise anymore if something like that happened.

He didn't want anyone to get hurt due to his own impatience and running off when he could be there to protect them. It was true that he wasn't very close with many in their group, but they were still his friends, and if he had even one of their deaths on his conscience he would break under that guilt. He had seen the haunted expression in Ero-sennin's eyes when he spoke of the people who had died due to his own impatience and foolish behavior, and it scared him to think he could end up harboring that guilt the rest of his life.

It still didn't mean he had to like it, though. "Fine, I'll keep you from hurting yourself pretty boy, just leave the tough ones to me. And don't expect me to go easy on you if we don't capture Sasuke because of this!"

He saw Neji smirk before turning back to camp, "So long as we make it back alive I won't mind your pointless attempts at my person."

Naruto grinned at the retreating form of Neji as he leaned against the nearest tree and took a seat within its large roots. The older boy seemed to of learned how to enjoy life a little while he was gone it seemed, and he liked the new Neji much better than the old, that was for sure.

Sighing he leaned further back into the roots and just stared up the the canopy of leaves far above his head and relaxed. Their pace had been hard set the past few days, trying to cover as much ground as possible in areas where they could rest the fatigue off. He wanted to keep going and reach the sound as soon as possible, but he knew that forcing the others to try and match his pace with their stamina would be a bad idea. So instead he had found himself trying to calm down by just enjoying the forest scenery and the feel of nature. He wouldn't say the three years with Ero-sennin had made him much more patient or less likely to lose his temper, and it certainly didn't make him all that much more intelligent, but with no one else besides his teacher to converse with most of the time, he had learned how to just simply enjoy those calm moments between training.

Maybe that was why he was getting along so much better with those from his graduating class now. He found that when he didn't shout to be heard, that they would listen to him the most, and it was nice to finally have his peers notice him and his abilities as something other than annoying or dead last.

With everyone growing up and changing over time, he had worried that when he came back he would find that they had forgotten about him. Thinking about how he was wrong couldn't help but make him grin, not only had they been glad to have him back, they were much easier to approach and talk to than ever.

Turning his attention back to the camp he could see Chouji and Shino talking about something while Hinata was sitting to one side of them obviously looking like she was interested in whatever was being discussed. Watching their discussion he couldn't help but laugh as he saw her stand up suddenly and add something in before sitting back down suddenly, and if his eyesight wasn't fooling him he could see her face a deep shade of red.

It had only been a few days since he had finished his elemental training for the Rasengan, having left with his team only a few hours after it's completion, but amazingly enough at the beginning of it he had been approached by Hinata and they had begun something neither one was familiar with, talking with one another. She still stuttered on occasion, and often ended up apologizing for no reason, but he couldn't help but enjoy their talks.

Even though most of their conversations involved his talking to her, he had learned a lot more about the girl as he managed to get little bits of information out of her over time. A couple times he even managed to get her to stop stuttering and to keep the conversation up by herself; he also thought he would have enjoyed listening to what she had to say if dog boy didn't keep interrupting each time she finally got comfortable talking to him though.

The first time had broken out in a fight between himself and Kiba for interrupting her until Kiba had pulled Hinata close to him and given her a kiss. Had it not been for Hinata stepping between the two, he was firmly convinced at that point he would have broken most of the major bones in the dog boy's body, and surely all of the minor ones too. It was only after Hinata had told him that they had begun dating during the three years he had been gone that he managed to calm down a little. It was shocking, and he wanted to ask her why she would date dog breathe but when he looked up he noticed he was alone.

Still, kissing a girl who was not your girlfriend without her permission was wrong, but if she was, he had not right to do anything about it, even if it had looked like Hinata wasn't happy by his behavior. He was rude, loud, and dense, all things that he just couldn't see Hinata falling in love with, and despite his desire to go speak his mind like usual, he had learned through pain from Sakura that prying into a girl's private business was not the best idea.

So he had just ignored it, and come the next morning he was back to talking with Hinata, glad to see that his new friend seemed to still be willing to talk to him as they traveled.

Shaking his head he cleared his head of all the thoughts that were beginning to accumulate in it. Thinking was good, but somethings were just troublesome as Shikamaru would call it, to think about. Bracing his hands on the roots around him he started to push himself out of his impromptu nest when he felt something land in his lap, staying his movement to stand up.

Looking down his eyes made contact with those of a small white fox that was now lying sprawled out in his lap. It only took a moment for the surprise to set in before he started pointing at the creature "Hey! Off! This is my lap, not your bed!" Only when the fox's head began to sag and put its head down in his lap did he take a real look at the snowy fox.

All across its body were jagged cuts and dirt and grime surrounding what looked like various bruises and bumps across its body, and its front leg was twisted at a horrible angle, obviously broken in a painful manner. There was no way a fox could of received this kind of treatment from other animals, leaving only the possibility of humans having cause so abuse on the poor creature.

Clenching his teeth he had to fight down the urge to kick the ass of whoever would do this right then and there. Lowering himself full back onto the ground he saw that Hinata was still within sight, with Chouji and Shino seemingly to have gone somewhere else for the moment. "HINATA! COME HERE AND BRING A FIRST AID KIT!" The startled jump was enough for Naruto to know she had heard him before he turned his attention back to the fox. He had never seen a real fox before, their kind being chased out after his tenant had destroyed so much of Konoha, the people there having learned to dislike the creatures for having anything in association with Kyuubi. Looking at one now though, he couldn't see why someone could blame the little creature for what a demon would do, but he also knew far too well that people would find blame in anyone even remotely associated with a tragedy like the Kyuubi's. This time it just meant that the poor fox had probably run across people who remembered the demon far too well and took it out on the poor thing.

He looked up when he heard the sound of feet coming fast towards him from the direction of the camp, and by the time he looked up saw Hinata's worried face staring back at him. "Um, are you alright Naruto-kun?" Shaking his head he pointed towards his lap where the fox was passed out, a small 'oh' slipping out of Hinata as she knelt down beside him to look at the fox.

Maybe the look of worry had been apparent on his face because when Hinata looked up at him she smiled softly and put her hand down on top of the fox's side. "She'll be fine." Though spoken softly like always, they held a firm quality to them that made it hard for Naruto to disbelieve her, and in the end, he could only smile back before she took the fox from his lap, placing it on a clean sheet she had spread out over the ground. He watched as she slowly cleaned the poor creature, not only the paying attention to the wounds, but gently wiping the dirt and grime from the soft hair along the fox's body. She spoke calmly, as if to keep the creature calmer as she gently cleaned its hair, telling it how it had beautiful fur and it would be a shame to shave it to avoid infection.

In short, she was everything he imagined a good mother would be when helping their own child and it made him grin widely at her. "Ne Hinata-chan, you really look like a mother like that. I bet your kids are gonna think you're the best mother in the whole world."

It only took a matter of seconds for the grin he had to fade after that though, her ministrations stopping for a moment as she stared down at the ground. "Please Naruto-kun, I apologize for my rudeness but don't talk to me about that." With that she quietly applied the bandages before looking up at Naruto again before beginning again softly, "We should have Sakura-san look at his internal injuries to see how severe they are, and to have her fix its broken bones. Either way, she will need a few days of rest without having to try to care for herself in order to make a full recovery."

To say he was confused was an understatement at the moment, he was utterly unsure of what was going on. He could have sworn he must have upset Hinata somehow, but she seemed to still be talking to him like normal now. The only thing he could think of was that maybe she did not want children, even if that were a shame; he was being honest when he said she would be an awesome mother. But again, he knew he shouldn't risk involving himself in a girl's business without permission, it usually only ended in pain.

"How are we going to take her with us though? I mean we can't leave her here, and no way that bastard Neji is going to agree to let it come with us. If we leave it here though it could be injured more and maybe even die!" He knew he was being a bit dramatic about it, but he was honestly worried about the little creature, but even more so Hinata was one of the few people that could convince Neji of something when others were failing, and the prankster inside of him knew that to not use that opportunity would be an incredible waste.

Biting her lip, Hinata looked down at the fox, her expression torn as she battled between desire and duty. "B-But Naruto-kun, it's dangerous to bring her along with us, and Neji-niisan would get angry if we let it slow us down any."

Naruto thumbed his nose and grinned at the girl, "If he doesn't let us do the right thing and help her then I will just have to kick his ass again then. Besides, it's small enough it won't slow any of us ninja down, and if you talk to him he may listen Hinata-chan!"

Sighing Hinata stood up and took the fox into her arms, cradling it against her chest as it slept, careful to not undue any of her work or put pressure on it's broken bones. He knew, although could not understand, that she didn't like confrontations, and he felt a little guilty for asking her to confront her cousin about something like this. "I'll go too. That way you don't have to face Neji alone. That okay Hinata-chan?"

Looking at him she gave him one of the biggest and most radiant smiles he had seen out of her before, "Thank you Naruto I will speak to niisan on behalf of our little friend."

Without thought Naruto grabbed her in a big hug, careful to not to squeeze the fox as he held on to the girl. "Thank you Hina-chan! You're one of the most awesome kunoichi I know." Letting her go he laughed as she turned a deep shade of red. He may never understand why she did that so often, but when he really took the time to look at it, it was actually kind of cute.

Laughing a bit he turned to camp in search of Neji, Hinata and her charge a few feet behind, trying to let the color leak from her face before they made it back to the campsite.

OOO

"As soon as we reach the borders of sound I want that creature gone, am I clear?" Neji's glare had come to rest on Sakura, the girl having been a most stout supporter of keeping the fox with them oddly enough. While Naruto and Hinata had tried their best to convince Neji to let the animal come with them, it wasn't until after Sakura had tended to its injuries and pleaded to let the fox come with them as well that they had finally made him agree. Neji was a strong debater, and he had made very good points as to why not to bring the creature, but he knew better than to cross the the Hokage's apprentice, and her violent threats about what she would do should he not help the fox gave him little other choice than to agree.

Though all three saluted Neji, the evil grins on Naruto and Sakura's faces caused him to sigh before walking away, causing the Naruto and Sakura to laugh a little bit, which made Hinata giggle a small amount to see, before turning their attention back on the fox. Along with treating its wounds Sakura had used another jutsu to ensure that the fox was able to rest in order to regain it's energy, and the only movement it made in it's sleep was the slight rise and fall of it's breathing.

Standing up and brushing the dirt from her skirt Sakura began to pack up the supplies she used to help with her treatment. "Fun as that may have been, we're still on a mission, and I personally want to get some sleep on our last night in safe territory." Spinning around she pointed a finger in Naruto's face, giving him a glare that caused the boy to stand perfectly straight as he stared at her, fearing that she was going to hurt him.

"Before you ask, no, you will not be the one to take care of the fox. I doubt if you have a single proper nurturing bone in your body. I know Ino won't want to share a tent with the poor thing." Turning to Hinata now, Sakura took her hands in her own, her face having transformed in the largest smile she could manage at the shy girl. "Hinata though would be perfect. She has the only other single tent and she is already a perfect care giver! Say you'll do it, won't you Hinata-chan?"

Hinata just blinked for a moment before smiling softly at Sakura, "That's okay with me. If you will excuse me then, I'll go get her settled in." Bowing to Sakura and Naruto she leaned down and picked up the fox before slowly heading back to her tent, speaking softly to the fox as she went.

After waving goodnight to Hinata he bent over to grab a bandage that Sakura had forgotten and handed it to her.

"Thank you. You know Naruto, that was a really nice thing you did back there, I'm sure Kitsune-chan also appreciates it greatly." Her smile made him grin and lace his hands together behind his head, "No sweat! If I am going to be the greatest Hokage, I have to have great kindness for everyone! Even if they are lap stealing foxes."

She couldn't help but grin at that, "Yeah. Now let's just hope that she isn't bothered all night. Although she is healed now, she needs a lot of rest to recover her strength, the poor thing."

"Bothered? I don't think Hinata would do anything to bug her, and it's not nice to think she would do anything like that you know!"

"I didn't mean that she would do anything of the sort Naruto. What I'm worried about is Kiba trying to visit her tonight as well when everyone needs to get some rest."

Naruto froze and stared at Sakura in shock. That sounded like something that Ero-sennin would be doing! "EH! Kiba sneaks in to Hinata-chan's tent at night?! She wouldn't do something like that!" He could feel his reason dissipating behind a cloud of anger at Kiba, and was halfway to going to the other boy's tent to kick his ass when he felt Sakura snake an arm around his neck to hold him place while she placed her other hand over his mouth.

"Quiet, you idiot! They could get in trouble if found out, and no, she doesn't let him in, but that doesn't stop him from trying. It's already trouble enough that a couple is together on a mission, you know how that is frowned upon, but if this were to be found out, _both_ of them would be in lot's of trouble. So do Hinata a favor and keep your large mouth shut." The entire time her voice had been soft, but the grip around his neck was getting tighter as she made sure he understood what would happen if others did catch wind of this.

"Fine, but if he does anything to get her in trouble I'll kick his ass" he grumbled back.

Sakura raised an eyebrow at him. "As far as I knew, you barely talked to Hinata before this mission, yet here we are, all jealous over her. How cute Naruto."

"That's not it!" he exclaimed rather loudly, which earned him a tighter grip and Sakura's foot grinding into his to remind him to be quiet before he could continue."It's just that she seems like someone who wouldn't like that kind of stuff and he just forces it on her. I mean, I know I'm bad with girls, but I just can't see why she would go out with that idiot anyways. Besides, it even seems like she isn't really happy when he's around, her smile gets all weird for some reason, like she's forcing it. If I was him I would make sure she had a reason to always smile and not have to force it."

The look that she gave him when he finished made him freeze. If it had not been for the look of pity she was giving him, he would have sworn that she was almost as furious as he had ever seen her. "She has her reasons, Naruto. Maybe if you were a little bit less wrapped up in yourself you might understand her a bit better. For now though, go to bed." With that she left Naruto alone, very much confused.

He thought he was a good friend to everyone, wasn't he?

**OOO**

Hinata woke up early the next day, making sure that her pack and weapons were properly packed before looking to the condition of their team's latest member. Compared to Sakura-san's medical abilities she knew she was of little use to the already healed fox, but it gave her a pleasant activity to fill her time before breakfast and breaking camp. Since she had been a little girl she had enjoyed interacting with the few animals that lived or visited her clan's compounds, and it brought her a sense of comfort to be caring for an animal before a dangerous mission.

Smiling softly at the fox she placed it back in the nest of her blanket that had fashioned for it the night before and without though begun singing softly to the fox as she began to fashion something to carry it in for the travel ahead. She enjoyed caring for others, and knowing she could be the one to provide it to the poor thing while they traveled only helped to make her feel even more happy as she altered the groups spare back pack to allow it to sit inside with the bag strapped to her chest. Before long she had finished the holder, and placing the fox and the blanket inside set about taking down her tent before finally searching out breakfast.

Finding a seat on a stone between Chouji-san and Shikamaru-san she greeted the two men before taking some of the food that had been prepared for breakfast. Team Kurenai and Team Asuma had shared missions in the past and she had grown fond of the two boys, their interesting personalities eventually overcoming her shy nature so as to eventually form a friendship of sorts between the three. She had come to enjoy her discussions with the two whenever they had the chance to work together, finding Chouji-san's kindness to be very refreshing while she absolutely marveled at Shikamaru-san's mind, his ability to think so far in advance having proven the key to their teams success in a missions more than a few times. Ino-san must feel very lucky to work with the two, and though she always denied it vehemently when confronted about it sometimes she could see the blond grinning for no reason around her teammates.

Hinata's own team had been frightfully low on that team spirit for so long now that she wished she could go back to the genin days when they had been like family to each other. From a mission perspective though, while all three were very strong fighters, their main contribution to missions were their ability to track and to gather information quickly and easily. A well balanced team would not need three specialists, and it had started that her team had begun to take missions independently, and while they still worked together quite often, they had begun to drift apart as a unit as the years went on.

Shaking her head to clear it of the depressing thoughts, she turned to Chouji and was about to ask him about what he had done with today's breakfast, their common interest in cooking giving them a fun subject to discuss while around the campfire, when she heard a large crash from the direction of Shino and Kiba's tent.

A moment later Kiba came racing out towards the campfire, his eyes full or murder and a hand pinching his nose shut. "Who the fuck put Skunk juice in my tent?! Speak up now so I can kick your ass."

It only took a moment before everyone began laughing at the poor boy, with his naturally keen sense of smell that must have been a horrible thing to endure, but they couldn't help but laugh at it. Even Neji and Shino looked like they were fighting back some laughter, and Hinata had to quickly stifle her giggling to keep from hurting Kiba-kun's feelings that his girlfriend would laugh at his misfortune.

Neji was the first to gather his wits enough to reply to the now absolutely furious dog user. "It probably happened naturally, we are in a forest after all, and if your skills are as good as you boast, you should be able to detect anyone coming. So break camp and be ready to go within fifteen minutes, am I understood."

For a moment Hinata was scared that Kiba would argue with her cousin, but seeming to realize that had it been any of them he _would_ of known it, he went back to break the tent while mumbling curses to himself. Hinata was about to go back to her food and put the incident behind her when she noticed the look of mirth in Naruto-kun's eyes. She knew that look, it was the one he always had when he sat back to watch the results of his pranks, but there should have been no way for him to sneak past Kiba's senses. Catching her gaze he winked before and stood up, her interest now piqued, she watched as Naruto went over and gave Akamaru a big hug, burying his face in the fur before going back to his seat and finishing his breakfast. She couldn't help but grin at Naruto's plan, if he smelled like Akamaru it would be nothing to disturb Kiba, and Akamaru could have no idea that Naruto had wanted to get his scent on him. Giggling she looked back down at her food and began to eat, she would have to keep this a secret from Kiba-kun, if he found out he wouldn't stop until he had his revenge against Naruto.

Reaching down she started to run her hands through the fox's soft fur, enjoying the feel as it ran across her fingers while she talked with Chouji-san about his cooking. When Shikamaru had actually decided to join the conversation he had recommended some food that they and the fox could all eat to save on the work of finding food for it as well. She was about to thank him for his help, for she thought that he would find it too troublesome to get involved with the well being of the fox, when she felt a pair of arms slip around her center.

A small eep of surprise escaped from her as she squirmed to avoid having Kiba-kun from squeezing the fox and in doing so was pulled back onto his lap. Feeling the heat rise into her face she escaped his hold and shot up to her feet but the damage was already done and everyone had seen the action and she could feel their stares float between her and Kiba. Quietly she looked down at Kiba to see his hurt expression at her reaction and she started to feel bad about how she had reacted. He knew that she did not enjoy it when he did this, but maybe she just wasn't being as caring as she should be by not letting him have his way with these things. "I'm sorry Kiba-kun. I have to look after our guest today and right now I need to feed him so we can leave on time." Her voice was quiet and apologetic, but for a moment she thought she could see a look of anger pass his face as he looked, for probably the first time, at the open backpack on her chest.

Taking her original seat once more she was about to try and use the eye dropper Sakura-san had given her to feed the still sleeping fox when Kiba-kun sat beside her, pushing Chouji to the side in doing so.

Repressing a sigh Hinata just hung her head as she fed the animal. She couldn't blame Kiba-kun for his actions, she was the one who was stalling in every aspect of their relationship, and he was getting frustrated. She knew she would have to soon cave in to the boy if she didn't want to hurt his feelings, and all she would have to do is accept it and try to learn to live with it as time went on.

She only managed to stave off this dark train of thought that had taken over her previously good mood when Neji had given the order to move out. After a final check to make sure they had broken camp properly, they were once more off towards the country of sound.

OOO

The location of the Hidden Village of Sound had been a matter of great importance in the war against the Sound. Whereas the Hidden Leaf village was a stationary base of operations, the Hidden Village of Sound was known to change locations often, never remaining in one place for more than a month before moving once more. It was believed that even though Orochimaru was strong, he also knew the importance of being careful and made it nearly impossible for his enemies to find his base of operations.

So when the interrogation specialist of Konoha had said that he had managed to obtain the location of where the village would be located for the next few weeks Konoha had quickly mobilized to take advantage of it. With the strongest ninjas already on missions, it would take time before they could return, and instead the Hokage had sent them the order to rendezvous at the Hidden Village of sound and had sent its most promising Chuunin and Jounin it had on hand to attack before they lost the chance.

What had remained of the Rookie nine had been called, as well as the present members of Team Gai, Rock Lee and Hyuuga Neji, and they had set off towards the Hidden Sound. It was a bold and dangerous move to send only ten people, but little other choice had been given. After ten days travel the team had finally arrived at the Village, currently only about an hour out from the village itself, and thought they were ready to begin their mission they now faced a dilemma that had them unable to continue on the last leg of their journey.

"Shoo! Go! You're all better now!" Though he and Hinata had tried to release it, the fox wouldn't leave and just sat there watching them with curiosity in it's eye's. "If you stay with us you'll just get hurt worse than before you stupid fox, so go!" Crossing his arms he glared at the fox, doing his best scary look, hoping to frighten the animal away, and watched as it just lied down upon Hinata's feet as if to take a nap. The stupid thing was mocking him, he was sure of it. When they had tried to explain thing to it over the past few days it had responded and seemed to understand them, and only now was it acting like it couldn't hear him.

Sighing he looked at Sakura for help as she bent down to pick up the fox, leading it away to the edge of the campsite once more, with Lee on her heel's, yelling encouragements for the fox to go and find comfort with it's own kind in the woods. Yet for all their efforts at coaxing it into the woods, it just came back to lie upon Hinata, who was looking anywhere but the fox, her feelings of guilt for abandoning it not letting her make eye contact with it anymore.

It was Shino who eventually voiced what they were all thinking at that point. "Just leave it here. When a young animal leaves its pack it must be forced out otherwise it will never wish to leave the safety it had obtained. It will not be able to keep up with us if we go by treetops."

Even though Naruto didn't like the idea he couldn't help but agree that the fox would have no way of following them if they traveled in that manner the rest of the way. Nodding at the others he looked down at the fox, it was healthy now and should be more than ready to protect itself from whatever lived in these woods. "Sorry about this." With that, they all jumped into the trees and rushed off, and following Hinata's gaze backward he looked back to see the fox making a small sad sound at their departure.

**OOO**

Shikamaru was puzzled by what he saw of the Village of Sound. Strategically speaking the snake sennin had made one error in the continuous relocating of his village, and that was the availability of suitable lands. His current village was in a horrible location to stop small scale warfare, walled in on three of its sides by sheer rock faces with woodlands by it's entrance. Against a larger force it could serve as a defense measure, but the troops could only be mobilized to go forward through the village towards its entrance, making it vulnerable if they found themselves attacked while within the walls of the canyon.

Also, if this Sannin was as arrogant he had gathered, he would bet that he would be located at the very back of the Village in its largest building, enjoying his seat of power, in the worst position to come to the aid of his village should it be attacked. Though, if we weren't, then the plan he had formulated was going to be much more difficult to pull off, he mused, in fact, it would be very likely that he would never be able to go cloud watching again should he be wrong about this.

It hadn't surprised anyone when Shikamaru had been put in charge of the actual attack strategy, and even though Neji was his superior, it was well known that Shikamaru was quite possibly the best tactician Konoha had to offer, when he was willing to give his opinion on something that is.

Handing the binoculars over to Shino as Ino turned to him and looked at him, worry worked across her face. He wasn't surprised, he was nervous about this too. All he wanted in becoming a ninja was a little excitement, not these suicide situations he kept finding himself in. "How does it look Shikamaru?"

"Hrnn. A lot better than I had originally hoped for a suicide mission like this." He leaned back as she took a swat at his head and stood back up lazily. He coughed and made sure the entire team had his attention before he continued, "Fortunately for us, we have a large upper hand when it comes to terrain, and I plan to use it to our best advantage. First though, I want everyone to give me as many explosive notes as you have, hold on to only one for emergency combat use, but I will need the rest for the first part of our strategy." He waited as everyone dug out their explosive notes, and he was happy to note that everyone had brought extra for this mission, that would make things even easier. Turning to Lee he handed over all the notes. "You will be the key to making this whole thing work, so I need to make sure you understand what you are to do perfectly. You are able to set and adjust explosive notes even with your chakra I hope."

Lee grinned at him and nodded, he was long used to Shikamaru coming across as rude when he was too lazy to blunt his words. Good, yet another thing in their favor. "You are the fastest one out of all us, and we are going to need to you sneak in there and place these explosives in certain locations for different times. You will need to place a few explosives randomly, all timed to go off at the same time, so make sure to keep track of how much time passes. As for the rest, and make sure to save most of them for this, will line the main street. In a narrow town like this they will likely resort to running on different levels. I want you to place the explosives on tops of their buildings, all timed to go off a few moments after the initial explosions. With any luck we will catch all those who will go up this way, as well as those who are too close to the buildings on the main streets. We can cover those who come by the ground. Finally, make sure to place a few bombs as far back on the street as possible to delay any reinforcements from their main buildings. If we keep it random but close enough together they may decide to wait it out to see when they stop instead of trying to force their way out. I know that is a lot to accomplish, as well as avoiding being seen and hiding the notes so they are not found, can you do it?"

"Ossu! I will make sure that none shall come at us from above, or I am not wild beast of Konoha." Shikamaru gave the Jounin a wry smile before continuing. "Good. My team will take care of those that make it to the gate in the first wave; with any luck we can eliminate most of their forces with just this." Nodding to Neji he walked back to his group and sighed, why did he always have to go on these crazy missions? If he came back from this a nice long time alone staring at the clouds sounded good.

"Remember, if they come at us with too many numbers, those who are made to combat multiple opponents will keep those who are not safe as we make a retreat and wait for our backups. Am I clear?" Neji glared at Naruto when he said this, and Shikamaru suspected that they had argued about just this in the past. When Neji looked at him Shikamaru nodded and turned to Ino, "That means you. Don't go and get yourself hurt, it's far too troublesome to have to carry you back all the way to Konoha."

Ino grinned at him, "Thanks, you too Shikamaru."

**OOO**

Pushing his weight back off his lead foot, he jumped back, bringing his foot that had been on the ground in contact with the enemy ninjas groin while landing on his other leg as he rotated his hips to the inside of his body to prepare for his next attack. Bringing the leg that had just caused the enemy ninja to bend over in a front leg in to out crescent kick, he brought his heel down on the back of his skull, causing the man to fall either unconscious or dead, but he didn't take the time check as he began to run at full speed back towards the others.

He had been spotted as he placed the last bit of camouflage over his explosive notes farthest back along the road. He had dared get no closer for fear of being spotted, and had saved this position for last since it stood to reason he would be the most easily viewed in the middle of the road. He had been right and the man who had come after him had made chase, luck being on his side as the man did not set off the alarm at the presence of an enemy soldier, obviously believing he was more than a match for any single ninja, not knowing that he faced the handwork genius of Konoha.

Having left his weights back with the rest of his team he was allowing himself to run through the main street, confident that his speed would save him from being attacked, and was more than halfway to his destination when the first layer of explosives went off, the sound and light coming from random directions, bringing with it a few screams of injured ninjas as they must have been caught in the blasts. Picking up the pace he put on a greater burst of speed and found himself back with the others, exchanging a nod with Neji as he passed.

Priding himself on his good work he took a moment to relax before getting into position to fight, seeing no need to expend his energy before the fight began.

Shikamaru-sans plan was bold, his pitting their ten ninjas youthful passion against an entire village and though at times it seemed as if the younger boy lacked any youthful spirit to do something as daring as this his youthful passion must of finally been coming to the fore, as well as his trust for the abilities of his teammates. Though he knew was the least well equipped to handle multiple opponents, he was determined to reward the shadow user's faith in their abilities by showing him what he was a powerful ninja.

His attention was pulled away from his thoughts of glory though when the largest explosion yet tore through the village, causing the ground to shake a bit even as far back as they were standing. Indeed, it seemed that many ninjas had opted to take the high ground to ensure that they could all get to battle together instead of crowding the main street, and Shikamaru's plan had worked wonderfully. Not only had it taken out those on the roofs, but the debris had managed to kill many of the ninjas on the street as well, the remaining ninjas only numbered around 150 now, a little less than half the original number.

Blocking their way was Team Asuma, their hands flying through respective jutsu's, much faster and having such a head start that all present could see that they would finish before any of the enemy ninja would have time to react to them. Instead they kept running, realizing that their own town had become a deathtrap, intent on reaching the open space outside the gate to launch their own offensive, and if what he had heard about Orochimaru was correct, retreat was not an option for these ninja.

Before Lee's eyes he watched as the three began their famous tactics of binding their enemy to allow Chouji to finish them off. Ino-san's mind control technique allowed her to influence those who had spread apart from the rest of the group to clump together once more, opening the stage for the Shikamaru and Chouji's attacks, and without the invasion into their minds, she was still conscious within her own body, and from what he understood of the jutsu, immune from receiving the enemy ninjas received.

Therefore he watched as Chouji-san jumped high into the air, his body swelling rapidly to many times it's original size and then combining it with his meat tank technique, becoming a large ball with which to run over his enemies. Had he not known of their team's abilities though, he might have missed what the shadow user was about to do. Shikamaru's part was much more devious, using their attention on his teammate to loose one of his light grenades, blinding them and causing a large shadow to form from his team mates body which he quickly utilized in holding as many as he could just long enough to keep them from escaping his team mates attack.

Once they had finished they quickly fell back and formed their battle formation, ready for the survivors to make it to them and prepared to take any of them on as a team once more. Following their lead he watched as Kiba stayed by Shino's side and Hinata rushed to Sakura, her Byakugan and defensive techniques being perfect for protecting their medic during a battle such as this one.

Making eye contact with Neji he grinned, "A good chance to show how much stronger than you I am! I bet I get more than you my friend!" At Neji's smirk he grinned wildly, just as Gai Sensei had his rivalry with Kakashi, so did he with Neji, though he felt ashamed to suspect that his and Neji's was a lot more mutual than his sensei's, and he wasn't about to let Neji down by showing him his rival was weak by losing here.

Turning his attention back to the fight he saw around sixty ninjas finally make it past the main gate. Their movements were cautious as they slowly approached their team, he couldn't blame them really, in less than two minutes they had managed to kill over two hundred of their fellow ninjas with only a handful of their team. It had been too easy, and he was beginning to be worried by the lack of stronger ninjas that had appeared to handle the intruders, but he didn't have time to finish his thoughts as two of the braver enemy ninjas landed in front of him, their hands already speeding through seals to various jutsu's.

Launching himself at them he knew he wouldn't make it in time to land a solid hit on the two men. Instead he let himself fire a scissor kick to both sets of hands, disrupting the flow of chakra the two had been creating for their jutsu's. Though he was strong, Lee knew that against even a competent yet weak ninjutsu user, he would be in trouble. So he never allowed them to complete their jutsu's, instead engaging enemies in hand to hand combat, keeping them too busy to form any seals.

Normally two people of their level would have been easy for him to defeat in a short amount of time, but as he was about to strike his attention was pulled away as he saw Naruto-kun surrounded by about a dozen enemies, something that could prove dangerous for even as strong a person as Naruto. He would have to end this quickly. Beginning his attacks again he slowed down his pace just enough that the two could follow him and block his attacks as he forced their backs against their village wall. Sensing the wall at their backs he let them push him off, giving him some room and lulling them into a false sense of security before he opened his first gate long enough to run at the two and deliver two uppercuts to their solar plexus, forcing their bodies back into the wall as well before the slid to the ground unconscious.

Closing the first gate he ignored the mild pain he felt course through his body. He had trained long to endure as much of the pain of the initial gate as he could, and he had made sure to keep the time it was open short, but it still was quite painful to use.

Shaking to clear his head he turned his gaze back towards Naruto-kun, ready to launch to his aid when he stared in shock at the giant crater surrounding the boy, the bodies of the enemy ninja scattered around him as he grinned and launched himself at the nearest opponent.

Feeling a hand on his arm Lee tensed, expecting an attack and spun around to meet it, only to end up face to face with Sakura, her grinning face making him relax as she sat him down and began examining him.

Though he still confessed his love for her often, they had become friends since the time she had helped him after his fight with Gaara, and had been the one to care for his many wounds that resulted from training or missions over the years. He also knew that she wouldn't let him continue fighting until she finished her examination, so he just gave over and let her work, even as fighting raged on around them.

"You used your gates again didn't you Lee? Geez, every time I tell you you should be more careful but you go out and ruin all my good work on you." He laughed, "In my youthful passion I tried to get to Naruto-kun's aid quickly, though it seemed that it wasn't needed in the end."

At that he could hear her beautifully soft laugh and grinned at being able to make her do such a thing while on the battlefield, strength filling him once more at the joy it gave him. "That idiot seems incapable of slowing down _or_ getting seriously injured. Worry more about yourself Lee-san." Though she sounded angry at the blond, he knew Sakura thought of Naruto as a brother and was just worried about the blond being alone against so many ninja.

"He certainly is full of passion, and he has gotten much stronger, and more than any of us I believe he can bring Sasuke back to you Sakura-chan."

Standing up Sakura looked at him and smiled, "Thank you Lee-kun. Just please; don't get yourself injured any further. Those gates take a lot out of you and I may not be able to heal it all on the battlefield, and you're dying would make me very angry with you, do I make myself clear?" He was about to respond when he was cut off by her running off with Hinata in the direction of Neji, who seemed to of gotten a slight burn by a stray fire jutsu, leaving him to watch her retreating figure. "Of course Sakura-chan, I would do anything to make you happy."

Shaking his head he launched himself back into the fight, still having a bet to settle with Neji, maybe he could get a few more while Sakura-chan looked after Neji. That would surely give him the chance to get a few more enemy ninjas while he argued with Sakura about getting his wounds taken care of.

**OOO**

Somehow during the course of all the fighting Naruto had found himself back to back with Neji, and now as they stood there, they were faced with the last of the sound forces that had come out. Only a few minutes had passed since the initial explosions but to him it had felt as if he had been fighting in slow motion, taking out one opponent after the next. With the defeat of these final ninjas they would finally be able to continue on to Sasuke, and for that he would need all of his energy.

But these opponents finally seemed to be showing some intelligence and weren't letting them close. After seeing the effects of not only Neji's kaiten, but his Oodama Rasengan, he couldn't blame them for wanting to keep their distance, but he was in a rush. "Neji, plant your feet to the ground."

Grinning evilly at the remaining ninja he began to form another Oodama Rasengan slowly within in his hand. Normally a Rasengan of any type was just a tightly compressed sphere of wildly moving chakra, but in the early stages of learning it one had to practice in steps, first learning to rotate their chakra in one direction, and then moving on to various directions all at once. From there the trick was to apply enough power and to keep the power contained in a sphere. Without these things, the Rasengan would leak out into the surrounding air and lose power.

It was because they were such hard things to learn that few ever learned the jutsu, but without the different directions or the pressure to hold it in, the Rasengan became a small tornado, and an Oodama was large enough to create torque on the surrounding air with Neji and Naruto at it's center, and most definitely strong enough to pull in the ninja who had surrounded them. Once they were close it was a simple matter of leaping into the air as Neji's kaiten ended the fight in one decisive blow.

He only took a moment for Neji to verify that there were indeed no more enemies around before racing back to the others and he raced over to Sakura grinning like a maniac. "You see that? We totally kicked Sound's ass! Now all that's left is Sasuke and its home free."

He expected Sakura to agree with him, or at the least smile at the reminder of his promise, so he was surprised when she frowned and stared at Shikamaru, who had confronted Neji as he walked over.

"You know that was too easy. Despite Orochimaru's habits of having a large divide in his weak and powerful ninjas, ten men should not of taken out his entire village, especially without him or some higher up coming out to challenge us as well. I fear we have been tricked, I need you and Hinata to monitor the surroundings to make sure we aren't about to be attacked."

Instead of getting angry at his taking the control of the situation, Neji just nodded as he and Hinata moved to begin searching when a silky smooth voice came from the tree's right next to them, "That won't be necessary. We merely did not wish to waste good ninjas on such an insignificant threat. Though, I am displeased that they didn't manage to do more to you before they died; a shame."

Naruto spun to the trees off to their right, watching as the shadows slipped away to reveal Orochimaru surrounded by eight people in their level two curse seals, and Kabuto and their target standing next to him.

Sasuke was throwing him a cold glance as he stood there and watched as if he viewed everyone there as insignificant compared to him. It was those cold eyes that Naruto hated the most, he knew somewhere inside was the Sasuke that had been willing to protect him on the bridge, to do everything he could to protect him and Sakura from Gaara, now it was his job to beat him until that Sasuke came back. He looked at Neji, he knew that they would need all the help they could get, but he couldn't ignore Sasuke being so close, and was relieved when Neji nodded slightly at the blond.

He launched himself at Sasuke, ignoring the curse sealed individuals in front of him, only having one target in mind. "Time to break those bones and drag you back Sasuke, and then I'll kill that bastard snake and his assistant!"

The part of his mind that wasn't clouded by rage yet could only help but wonder if Neji would get his wish and bring everyone back alive from this.

**OOO**

She was getting frustrated by this point; she had managed to follow the scent for as long as possible until the scents of blood and sweat had nearly over powered the smell she was tracking making the job slow and difficult.

After her mother had died she had thought that she was going to be left alone forever until she had sensed a kindred spirit nearby, though she couldn't see it, she knew that a being like herself was hidden away somehow. Thanks to that being she had been introduced to the person who had become her mother, her friend, all in the short span of days that they had known each other before they were separated again.

She knew as a fox demon, especially one on the verge of adulthood and her second tail, she should accept her situation and move on, especially when it involved the humans her fellow snow fox demons had told her to avoid, but she couldn't forget the pale eyed girl who had cared for her.

Finding the scent once more she raced after the girl, hoping she would be able to find her before she smelled the blood of the girl next.

**OOO**

Whew, now to say somethings before I get lynched.

I am not an avid fan of Naruto. Even though I am writing this fan fiction, I merely see Naruto as an okay manga, and not some god send. I am not trying to start an argument here, and only say it because I may make mistakes with my story that some who like the series more than myself may not like. If you find anything like this, feel free to email me. I may change it if I see it as something that I am willing to change, but some things may not be changed if I see it as something I want to keep.(Note, I do enjoy Naruto fanfiction. Given the large fanbase it had produced many good stories that I feel deserve much more credit than they have received. So I would like to thank the other writers here for probably being the ones to make my brain think along the lines of Naruto to create this story that has formed in my head.)

Now, about the ability level of Naruto. I am not a fan of making a super powerful character in stories, it usually seems dull and boring to me, and I am writing this to enjoy myself among various reasons, so don't expect Naruto to become super powerful at any point in this story. He will become stronger, yes, that is a standard in these types of stories, but it won't be exponentially. There will be one point that you will come across that he gets an advantage, but that's just me and my imagination giving me the chance to tweak the world of Naruto a bit to my own evil whims. You have to keep in mind that they did not face very strong opponents here, and most of the work was done via very simple strategy to reduce a large force. And if some of you dislike that so few ninja's defeated an entire village practically, keep in mind that they could not find the village before hand, a good way to protect a village with few people, as well it was shown at the end that they were all weak ninjas. You can think of them as Orochimaru's cannon fodder meant to merely tire an enemy out should they not find a way to effectively defeat the majority of their forces in decisive and not very taxing ways.

Also about Kiba. No, I do not dislike the dog user, but I do feel that this is the way he might react in this situation, and it fits my story well. So I apologize to those who are his fans and feel I am mistreating him.

Now that we got that out of the way, hopefully no one will be sending me death threats. I will go about this whole process backwards and introduce myself now, at the very end. Afterall, you would only care if somehow I actually managed to capture your interest enough with my story that you would give a damn.

To keep it short I am a long time reader of fan fiction, and respect many people who have tried their hands are writing good fiction, though I myself had sword never to write any, and for a long time I stuck to that. Recently though, with a break in college and my desire to write non fan fiction related works I have found that years of ignoring my old friend in the pen and paper that I have lost much finesse with my words, and since I was imagining this little story of mine, it seemed like a good chance to hone my skills.

As such, I would be very pleased to receive any reviews I can. I know some of you don't feel comfortable critiquing work, but I would feel much better if I could know something you liked and something you hated about my writing. I recognize many faults with it myself, and the only way I can get rid of them is practice, so any input I can get will mean that further chapters (and yes, there will be a good number if the story goes as I am planning, and in a way unexpected as of yet) will only get better.

Flames and demands for updates though will be promptly ignored and or saved for future amusement. I am a full time student and work as much as possible to fund this, so time to write is at a minimum, and that time is usually taken up by my being easily distracted by various books, interesting things to study, or video games. So please be patient, I promise to try and update as often as possible, but I won't force myself for you and produce a piece of work I can't at least be halfway pleased with just to have something up here for you to read.

As for the Rating, I make it M to keep myself covered in most situations and because I may end up having something happen later if the characters end up there. (The story plays out in my head, so if it reaches that level, then so it shall)

That said, I am sorry for dragging on those Author Notes, but I felt they were issues best addressed as soon as possible and made public to everyone.

I do hope you enjoyed my boring attempt at fiction and look forward to your reviews, so until the next chapter, I wish you all well.

(And to get you all involved, I am a fan of both Shika/Ino and Shika/Temari, so if you people want to make your opinion known, I am more than willing to here it)

(Also, anyone who is familiar with how to format using the system so I do not have to resort to uploading this multiple times, you shall have your praises sung for generations to come.)


	2. Hot to Handle

(Naruto and all it's licensing belongs to Kishimoto)

Howdy All. I meant to release this as a big release with all the fights, but life decided to remind me that it still existed, and I was having some serious mental blocks about one fight. I still am struggling with what to do about it. So instead I am just going to release this. It still isn't edited, bear with the gruesome writing a little bit longer please.

Eternal Nature – Chapter 2

Current as of 1/14

The smoke from his cigarette slowly wafted into the air, Ino carefully noting how the smoke slowly drifted past Shikamaru as it slowly diffused into the forest air. Never taking her eyes off of him, she watched a grin pull at the ends of his lips as the three of them moved to surround him, showing absolutely no sign that he wished to stop their actions. Though she had grown accustomed to different reactions while on the field, it was when the enemy showed a complete lack of fear that managed to still make her fight to keep her heart from pounding. No matter that her team had managed to defeat all those who had challenged them in the past, the sheer lack of fear at the possibility of death was not just incomprehensible to her, but a complete opposite to her own personality.

Though Ino talked big, she knew that without the help of someone like Shikamaru she would have died long ago as a ninja. It wasn't that she was weak, but given her clan's jutsu's, she was expected to perform missions well outside those of a standard ninja's mission profile. Often she was called when the control of a key individual was needed for the success of a mission, or to subdue a powerful ninja with means that went well beyond the normal confines of a ninja battle.

Yet both these things required careful planning and a mind to detail that she simply did not possess. It was not to say that she was unintelligent or unskilled by herself as a shinobi, for she was quite a powerful kunoichi in her own right, but when it came to strategy, she knew she would never measure up to her teammates ability.Alone she was formidable, but with Shikamaru's mental prowess and Chouji's power, they had formed one of the strongest teams currently active in Konoha. Yet this is what scared her about people like this man. If his reason to trust in his abilities went to the extent that he could face down three powerful ninja and not show even the least bit of fear were valid, and he found a way to overcome her teammates, she knew that she would stand little chance by herself. It was a normal fear she knew, but she hated looking weak and being afraid of anyone.

What made the whole thing worse was that the man had to be the most utterly disgusting looking individual she had ever seen or could imagine. When he had suggested that he face their team alone and away from the rest of his companions, she initially had to fight down the urge to pity him for the concept of this man fighting anything, curse seal or not. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that Orochimaru were allowing this man to travel beside him personally, she would have done just that, but she had decided to not risk exciting the situation by saying this and went with the man.

While they had walked further into the woods she and her teammates had taken the time to study the man, or what was left of him that is. If she ever would have to describe him to someone, she would have to say that he looked like a plague victim wearing a ninja outfit. Even though it was difficult to make out much of the ninja, seeing as he preferred to hide his body in an overly large full body coat that hid all but his face from view, the rest of his body told them volumes about him. The skin on his face had a gaunt appearance, sagging in areas and stretched tight over the bones in others, as if it had simply begun to pool in certain areas of his body in an attempt to fall straight off of his bones. To make matters worse, it was also horribly jaundiced, the pale sickly color making the air around him seem to glow in an unhealthy hue, giving a sick contrast to the open sores and cuts that marked his flesh. In short, as Ino thought about it now, he was the single most disgusting individual she had ever seen.

And Ino was not known for knowing when to keep her mouth shut either. "You ever think of getting that looked at?"

Grinning at her, he slowly took off his coat and placed it on a nearby boulder making sure to let them see how the rest of his body had the same disfiguring features across his whole body. "Once or twice, but I find I rather like the look of fear and disgust on people's face when they see me." Ino smirked; he even had the voice to match the looks, both harsh and rasping as it slipped past his yellow and broken teeth.

Placing her hands on her hips she threw back a trademark saucy grin, enjoying the own sarcasm in her voice. "You sure it's not just the looks from the girls you wooed with those gorgeous looks and drop dead sexy voice of yours?" She waited for his reaction as he took another slow calm drag on his cigarette.

"Quite sure, love. Besides, the looks of terror and disgust are so much more pleasing to see right before I kill them." Sighing dramatically her shot them that grin of his, "Though, it's much more fun when they put up a fight, so why don't we just take our time so your friend over there can come up with something to keep me entertained, shall we?" Though he had nodded his heads towards Shikamaru, his eyes never left Ino and it made her more than a little nervous to be on the receiving end of the wide eyed stare. "He seems like he can give me a bit of excitement before I get to have fun having my way with you darling."

Sparing a glance at Shikamaru, Ino watched as he knelt down into his classic pose for forming strategies, and more than likely he was already moving through a variety of strategies in his head as she bantered with the man. Turning her gaze back to the ninja she caught a slight nod from Chouji, obviously seeing the change in her body language, knowing that she had slipped into what her teammates called the saucy Ino. If Shikamaru needed time to think, she was going to be the one to buy him some time, not trusting the man's word to let them take whatever time they needed.

Plastering an obviously fake grin on her face for the ninja she decided to risk trading retorts with the man. "You know, I've been told that before. Can't say any of them enjoyed it much when I broke every bone in their body first." Sighing dramatically she shrugged her shoulders as she slowly let her chakra levels rise, hoping to intimidate the man without being too obvious about it. "Men have no staying power these days, you know? Really makes it hard for a girl to have her fun."

She could see a smile tug at the corners of Chouji's lips as she said that. Right before they had received their mission orders she had been yelling at Shikamaru to accompany her on a training mission for the kids at the academy. She had thought it would be fun to have their old team together and to pretend to be the evil ninjas for all those cute kids, but he had just wanted to be his usual lazy self instead. "Why do you men have to have so little staying power, huh?! All I want is to have a little fun and you have to go and ruin it." And so the argument had gone on until it had been broken up by their orders to see the Hokage about the mission she now found herself on.

"Seems you've been playing with all the wrong guys then, love. I'll make sure to show you a real good time, and though I can't promise that you'll be able to break any bones on me, I assure you I will break a smile when I have my way with you." His grin never faltered, never once showing that he even felt the pressure of her chakra and killer intent, to be truthful, she thought he was grinning even more, now that she had increased her chakra. "I even feel nice enough today to pity these two and let them watch what I do to you. Must be hard for two young males to be stuck around a hot little package like you day in and day out and know you are going to be a little bitch and not even service them properly. At least now they'll be able to see what you have to offer before they die."

Fighting to keep her own glare from reaching her face, Ino took comfort in the glare that Chouji was shooting the man. This man wasn't the first to suggest that there was a romantic spark in their team in hopes to make them falter and even though the insult never offended her personally, it still felt comforting to know that he would feel so strongly about his threats to her. To Ino, Chouji was a brother, someone who was kind and tried to take her into consideration, even if sometimes he were a bit dense when it came to females.

As for Shikamaru, their relationship was...complex. They had known each other from childhood, and from that a friendship had come with time between the two, and so had the rivalry. Though Shikamaru never made a point to try and upstage her, they both enjoyed stepping all over the others pride and proving the other wrong. To Ino, Shikamaru was someone where one day she could spend a day in simple pleasure, and the next want to strangle the boy for his attitude. She wasn't sure what that made him to her, but to quote the boy, it was far too troublesome to even consider figuring it out, and she knew he felt the same way.

So it was the insult to her team that made her angry, not a petty comment directed to her, but an insult to her team was an insult to the people she held most dear. "Unlike you, they have some actual morals and think with something other than their crotch. Now can we talk about something other than how you plan to be my first, because frankly I am having a hard time not laughing at the very thought of you getting anywhere close to me."

Watching him convinced her that that would be a no go it seemed, and in fact, she had seemed to make it worse, his lecherous grin only getting worse when she mentioned her being a virgin. Not only were she too young to even think of such a thing yet, but there was no way she was going to give it up to someone she didn't love, and she definitely could say that this man was not her knight on a white horse. "Virgins are the most fun. They tend to make the best screams as I rape them." His voice was getting wild now, taking on a crazed tone that Ino didn't trust, his eyes practically undressing her as she struggled not to fidget under their gaze.

Sparing another glance at Shikamaru caused Ino to bite back a curse as the boy seemed to still be deep in thought about what to do. What was taking the bastard so long? It wasn't like they hadn't faced a single unknown ninja as a team before, each time they had proven to be more than enough to subdue an enemy. This bastard was starting to creep her out with his looks, and he just continued to sit there in that silly little pose of his thinking.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she forced herself to stop berating Shikamaru and instead decided to try another tactic to delay the man.

Unleashing as much killer intent and chakra as she could at the man, Ino steeled her face into a mask of cold contempt. "And do you know what I do to rapists? I let them experience what it's like to have their body violated, and then I do much worse, I rape their mind. How would you like every bad memory brought back at once, all of your darkest thoughts brought to the surface, to have your entire mind at the mercy of a weak little girl?"

Though Ino was ashamed to admit it, she had really done these things in the past to a rapist that they had encountered on previous mission. Though she tried to convince herself that they had deserved it, but even so it had taken weeks of vacation time and the company of level headed friends like Shikamaru before she had finally started to get over the feelings of guilt for her actions. Besides, while she could do all those things, it took quite a bit of chakra and the events happened in real time unlike the effects of a genjutsu, the only real benefit being that it was much harder to escape her visions.

He didn't need to know that, though. And so she decided to keep the ruse up. "So, what kind of rapist are you? Was it your parents who raped you the first time? Maybe someone you looked up to as a kid?" Grinning evilly she lowered her voice, "Or was it Orochimaru? And now you have no opportunity to be anything but his little fuck toy, leaving you here to fight us to give you a little bit of ego before he takes it away from you again?"

Though his grin never faltered, Ino sensed a change in the man's chakra, the power becoming sick and highly oppressive. "Seeing you scream will be quite the delight, I love killing fools almost as much as I love the fear." His voice was now positively dripping venom, all the lighthearted quality to it gone in the face of what she could only associate with madness, and though she did her best to will herself not to, she couldn't help but take a step back as he began to advance on her slowly.

"I'm going to take out your two friends, and then I will make sure you can't get away. Then we will have our fun until you die from it." He was nearly on her now, and Shikamaru was still in his pose. Another moment passed and he came within striking range, and still Shikamaru didn't move. Pulling a kunai from her pouch she leapt back, forgetting the plan to wait for Shikamaru's signal as she brought her kunai up to block the one that the ninja had drawn. Drawing his arm back, he was about to launch the kunai when Chouji appeared behind him, grabbing on to the man in a full nelson, keeping his hands separated so he couldn't form seals as he forced the man to the ground.

Biting back a sigh of relief, Ino shot a thankful look at Chouji before sauntering over to the man and grinning down evilly at him, "So, shall we find out which one of those lovely memories it shall be now?"

"Though that sounds fun darling, I really don't think that's going to happen."

"Oh, and why might that be?" She didn't even bother to keep the condescending tone from her voice now; he was just blowing hot air to scare her into messing up. Someone of his build couldn't hope to overpower Chouji now that he was captured and without his jutsu's.

"Take a look at your shadow friend over there." Risking looking away from the man, Ino was shocked to see that Shikamaru had fallen onto his side, his breathing obviously labored as copious amounts of sweat began to run down his face. Shifting back to the man, the look of pure fury on her face was frozen as she saw Chouji's grip falter as he fell to the ground vomiting, his face pained from the force of the convulsions that seized him. Standing up and dusting himself off the man was staring at her once more with that damned grin of his. "Seems you got lucky love, you're nice and fresh for our fun, and just how I like it, means you'll last longer."

"What the fuck did you do to them, you bastard!" She was fighting to keep the fear from her voice, she was a kunoichi of Konoha and she was going to be damned if she would let him see how his mysterious victory over her team frightened her.

"Oh? I guess I forgot the other reason I like looking like this then, how forgetful of me. My entire body is highly contagious with some very nasty diseases when I look like this. Unfortunately for your brooding friend over there, he happened to be downwind of me, and this big boy right here," at this he took the chance to give Chouji a hug, causing his vomiting to become more violent as he did so, "made the mistake of touching me." Growling, Ino hurled a kunai at the man, succeeding in forcing him to move away from Chouji or risk being skewered on the end of the knife.

"I'm not that stupid girl. I know you two follow this boy's lead like two little bitches in heat after the alpha male. When it comes to sitting and waiting, I was his worst possible choice for that tactic, and now that clever little mind of his has gotten his entire team killed."

"I'm more than enough to take down a fucking pervert like you by myself." Though it was empty bravado at this point, Ino was stubborn and wasn't going to let this end without a fight.

"Now now, is that the way you want to be talking to the man who is going to have his way with you in a moment? Might make it worse if you make me too angry." His voice had taken back its insane quality, and Ino had to fight to not shiver. "You just know all the right things to say to make a girl want to really kick your ass." Launching herself up and back, Ino landed deep within the foliage of a nearby tree, trying to keep her distance from the walking monument of biological warfare. Circling back, Ino made sure to stay properly upwind of the ninja, watching him stand there, obviously not trying to put up chase or fight against her retreat. She knew that he fully intended to try and make good on his threats to her by now, so the only reasons she could conceive for him to remain where he was were that he either doubted her skill, or he intended to let his toxins kill her teammates while she waited. Of the two, she could live with his underestimating her, knowing it would allow her to surprise him easier, but she couldn't wait and allow for the man to injure her teammates further.

Gathering chakra down into her center, Ino began to race through a set of seals she had learned a long time ago as part of her basic elemental training. This jutsu was a water type jutsu meant to cause rain to occur in an area of her choosing, a useful move to help more advanced jutsu's that required a higher amount of ambient moisture to work well. Resulting from the fact that her team did not possess any natural water users, she had found the jutsu to be mostly useless except for caring for her plants and helping her to clean large area's quickly with strong downpours. Against an opponent whose ambient fumes caused sickness, she would just have to try and wash it away from the area, and hopefully cleansing the ninja to a degree as well, if she were to protect her friends and maintain her cover.

As the rain began to come down around the ninja, she was pleased by the scowl that crossed his face; it was a plan clever enough she thought even Shikamaru himself would have had to admit was good.

"So, you're a smart ass little blonde bitch, aren't ya?" she could hear the anger in his voice now, now whether that would play in her favor or not remained to be seen.

"And you're quite the dirty bastard. I thought I would give you a free shower, so I guess that makes use even then." Sticking her tongue out at him even though he couldn't see her, Ino quickly changed her hiding place to avoid detection before taking the time to inspect her teammates. As she had hoped, the rain had cleared the air and their breathing seemed to be a little less labored, and though Chouji still seemed quite ill, Shikamaru merely appeared to merely be asleep now.

Sighing in relief Ino turned her attention back to the man in time to see him inhaling deeply, his hands cupped around his mouth, pointed in her direction. Taking no time to see what the man was doing she pushed off from the branch to the nearest tree, hiding behind the trunk as a wide spray of vibrant green liquid coated the general area she had just been in. It only took a moment for the smell of burning wood to reach her nose as she watched the liquid eat away at the tree, and had she not moved when she had, it would have been her as well.

It seemed the freak was finally getting serious with her. Launching herself once more when she felt his chakra spike again, Ino began to narrowly avoid dozens of the mans attacks, each time her reactions getting slower and she was forced to find places to hide that had not already been hit by the attacks.

It only took a few moments before the smoke was mounting around Ino when she landed behind one of the few clear trees left in the area. Her lungs were burning for fresh air, and the surrounding area was covered in a large coating of whatever the man had been throwing at her, leaving her with no where left to go without being in the open and vulnerable to his attacks. "Damn damn damn!" She was getting more frustrated and scared by the minute as the man cornered her, there was no way she could get close enough to use her own jutsu without being open to his much faster one. She was trapped, and only a miracle or a brilliant plan could save her from being this man's next victim. She would need a mind as good as Shikamaru's to make it out of the hole she had dug for herself.

It took a moment, but after the thought of the dark haired boy had come to her mind, a grin began to spread across her face. She would need the mind of the genius to make it out of this, and she knew just how to get that.

OOO

The fucking bitch was boring him, after so much big talk she turned out to be another boredom, he could only hope that her body excited him more than her fighting. It had been too long since Orochimaru had let him have his way with a pretty young girl, and he was going to make sure to enjoy it at much as possible before she died from over exposure to his body. It would be too much fun to kill her after she had the balls to say that he was Orochimaru's bitch. He would show her who was going to be the bitch, show her over and over again until she begged for him to kill her. It was going to be fun to watch her scream, he would just give her a little more time to let the terror grow when she realizes that he had her trapped.

"Hey, Orochimaru's lap dog, eat this!" Pulling himself out of his thoughts he watched as a string of kunai flew at him. Dodging, he struggled to keep down his anger, she called him that again, and no one made fun of him about that unless they had a death wish. He didn't want to serve that snake, but here he was, and that slut was going to pay for those words. Pooling more chakra into his lungs he blew the biggest amount of acid he could directly where the kunai had hailed from, hearing a pleasing squeak of pain before the blonde bitch tumbled out of the trees before him, already unconscious from the pain.

Licking his lips he started over towards the girl, maybe he should start slowly, letting her wake up before he began, so he could see her terror as he began, although, starting first and watching her fear when she woke up sounded excellent as well. He could smell the sweat on her body as he got closer, he could see the soft rise and fall of her chest, he was already fully intoxicated by the power he had over this girl. Slow he leaned over to tear off her blouse, enjoying torturing them while naked the most, when he froze, the girl receding from his vision as he lost control of his body. He could feel himself starting to panic as he lost control of everything about his body, and had to resist the urge to cry out in his mind for help.

"Look what I have here, a caged sadist. Not so much fun to be the victim now, is it?" The voice had come from everywhere, speaking to him from inside of his head with the voice of that girl. He knew that should be impossible though, she hadn't used her jutsu on him. "That's right, I didn't, but my friend did. Did you know that my families jutsu's are not blood related? Instead, they are just incredibly complicated and specialized, something only few people ever take the time to learn or master. That means anyone trained can do it, I just borrowed a body and staged my fall so you would be distracted. Not bad for a smart ass blonde, huh? I'll even let you watch what is about to happen."

As soon as she had said those words his sight returned, and for a moment he believed he had merely made the whole thing up until he noticed that he was no longer near the girl or her friends, but in fact much deeper in the forest, all by himself. Watching in horror, he saw his hand reach into his belt pouch and pull out an explosive note, activating it with a small amount of chakra and placing it on his own chest, watching as it slowly began to count down to the end of his life.

He only felt himself regain control of his body in time to scream as the explosion consumed him.

OOO

It took Ino a moment to regain her senses as her mind readjusted to being back in her body after a difficult set of jumps between bodies without returning to her own. Once she had control of her body though, she couldn't help but smirk at what she had done. After having entered that man's mind she couldn't help but feel she had done the world a favor by killing a pathetic creature like him. She had seen countless women raped and murdered by him, both before his capture by Orochimaru and after, and though she couldn't approve of Orochimaru's taking control of people, she thought this man had gotten what he deserved.

Standing up slowly Ino managed to make it to her friends to check their vital signs, relieved to see that they were at least stable, though they still looked unhealthy. She knew they needed medical attention soon, and the only one they had for something like this was Sakura. Sighing, Ino made sure to hide the bodies of her friends before she began heading in the direction that she could feel Sakura's chakra, "Forehead girl is going to lord this over me forever, I just know it."

OOO OOO

Well, to be honest, I don't like how this turned out really, but then again, I didn't care for the quality of the first chapter much either. I think I tend to have things progress too quickly sometimes. Such as rapid fire conversation takes place, then everything comes to a head quickly, and is resolved quickly. I tried to focus on prolonging the everything here without making it dull, but it's hard to stretch my original ideas out and give them the eloquence I would prefer without sounding dull or artifical to me. So I will be trying to adjust the pace of the story in terms of how the flow of character thoughts and actions come along, since I want it to be much smoother and much more pleasing to read.

I also will probably start marking out more the difference between thought and action. I am used to seeing them together, but I feel that is not working very well for me as of right now, and it might help to separate them a bit more before I try and mesh them together.

Anyways, enough of my rant, reviews are welcome, and anyone with advice is more than welcome, they get a free imaginary cookie in fact, cause I think you guessed from above, I really want opinions on writing style, even if I know they won't be pretty.

And to those who left replies or gave me questions, I will make clear who the romantic pairings are (As in they get to be more than just friends). If you don't wish to have this spoiled, I suggest you stop reading now.

I wish to give each couple it's due time, because frankly I like each one in different ways, so expect a lot of each, but this is still a primarily Naruto and Hinata story.

Naruto – Hinata

Sakura – Lee

Shikamaru – Ino (I am also a fan of Temari, but I don't see Ino get enough time in my opinion, so it will be good to get her some)

Neji – Tenten

Kiba – Nobody (Not that I hate him, just don't like him)

And finally to the Sauke fans out there:

Sasuke – Big Bubba (Think the 50 year old Sailor Moon guy at cons if you need a good visual) :-D


	3. White Eyes and Pranksters

IDNONIAP – I Do not own Naruto, I am poor.

Author's Notes at the End explaining absence and other important things.

**Eternal Nature **

**By: Rylkan **

**Chapter 3: White Eyes and Pranksters  
**

Hinata lowered her weight, maintaining her base as she lowered her head under the blade of the naginata that had stabbed at her face. Twisting sharply on her left foot, she brought her right in a large sweeping motion to bring her to the side of her opponent, palm forward to apply her chakra to the women's lungs. Instead of meeting flesh and bone, her hand ran into a kunai that the women had somehow produced and placed in the path of her strike.

Wincing, Hinata lunged back in time to avoid the same kunai from coming across her throat, in time with Sakura who was coming in with a large haymaker punch. Releasing the kunai, the enemy kunoichi planted the butt of her Naginata on the ground and used it to jump over Sakura, landing neatly on the other side of her, looking bored.

Sakura cursed and turned to face the ninja even as she reached out to grab onto Hinata's hand, knitting the flesh closed. Hinata gave her a silent nod in thanks, her attention still on the women in front of them. They had not exchanged any words, and instead had begun fighting as soon as the other had deemed them far enough away from Orochimaru. Cloaked in a loose fitting outfit, she had quickly showed her proficiency for weaponry. Hinata couldn't see where she was storing all the weaponry, even with all her focus on her Byakugan. She seemed to produce them from no where and with a speed and proficiency that would make Tenten-san envious of her skill.

Seeing the ground behind them vibrate, she signaled to Sakura to jump, leaping out of the way as a spiked chain come up from the ground where they had been standing a moment before. Keeping her Byakugan active, she scanned deeper into her surroundings in case any more traps were in place. Seeing none, she breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Against an opponent of this caliber, she felt useless, only able to see the attacks well enough to avoid them at the last moment. At this rate, she was beginning to doubt the likelihood of their winning at all, and letting this women go on to help kill the rest of her teammates. She couldn't let that happen, but she couldn't see a way to stop it.

"I was hoping to find more challenge from fellow women, but it seems that you two are cowed little bitches." The woman's voice was high and nasal, fitting for her sharp and angular features, distracting Hinata from her thoughts. She seemed to look down on them as she spoke. "I heard that Konoha was known for producing exceptionally strong female ninja, yet all I see are two little sluts that follow the men around and let them do all the real work. It's so disgusting that I can barely stand looking at you."

Sakura was turning red at the insults, her temper about to get the better of her when Hinata stepped forward. "We are a team. I followed Naruto-kun because he is my friend, and I will fight to let him accomplish what he came to do here." Her voice was quiet and firm, no sign of a stutter at all as she made her declaration. She had come here to help Naruto-kun, and even if she would never be his lover, she would risk her life before she let this woman get close enough to harm him.

"Hinata-chan is right. We are here for our friend, something you wouldn't understand, so I guess we will have to pound it into you." Sakura grinned at Hinata, and she felt a bit more confidence build in her. Sakura-san was strong, and if she had faith in their ability to win, she should try harder as well. Adopting the stance of her family's style, she took a deep breath to clear her mind and calm her muscles. Nodding slightly to Sakura, she took off after the other ninja.

Unlike Neji-niisan, she couldn't see the individual tenketsu, but she could tell where the greatest concentration was by the intensity of chakra, her fingers forming into a sharp wedges, chakra flowing down them as she moved in to perform a 64 hands of hakke strike. The other ninja saw her coming, and reached into her cloak, her fists and the tops of her forearms covered in a spiked gauntlet. Hinata could see her the shift of her weight back, preparing to use her back hand in a simple reverse punch towards the incoming girl as her front hand darted into her cloak again. On instinct, Hinata aborted the technique and ducked, pushing inside her guard, just dodging a kunai meant to force her into the path of the womans fist that was now in the middle of air. Shooting up quickly, she shot her hand out, striking the bicep and cutting off the chakra to the muscle.

Leaping back she cleared the space as Sakura came barreling in, her weight low to the ground, hand ready to perform an uppercut the moment she was close enough to lunge up at her target. At the last moment, the woman leaned back, narrowly avoiding the punch and bringing up her foot towards Sakura's stomach. Her boot flashed with a dagger on the tip that had been concealed until now. Pushing her chakra into her center, Hinata performed a Kaiten, using the force of the spin to cause the woman to be pushed off the center line and just miss Sakura.

The fight progressed like that for the next few minutes, the two of them working in unison to push the woman back, landing occasional blows and once having Sakura land a strong punch to the others Solar Plexus, a strike that had caused her to slow down greatly as she struggled to catch her breath.

Sakura and Hinata had also taken a few good blows as well. They had both been stabbed on a couple of occasions, and when the woman had pulled a flexible broad sword out, she had landed a good slash to Hinata's calf, causing her to have trouble moving as they kept up their own attacks, afraid to take the time to try and heal the wound.

The other woman jumped farther back, and her hands flashed in a series of hand seals. Though she wasn't sure what she had used, she could see the chakra infused in front of her in the ground. Placing her hand on Sakura-san's shoulder, she shook her head. "She has placed a trap around her." Sakura nodded, "Keep an eye on her." Moving behind Hinata, Sakura knelt by Hinata's leg, starting to repair her leg.

The woman looked at what Sakura was going, and if she gave any sign of wanting to stop it, she didn't show it. "You two are starting to annoy me. Orochimaru-sama is expecting me, so I think it is time to just cut to the quick of this." Sakura raised an eyebrow, "And you called us bitches who followed the men. Sounds like Orochimaru has you whipped quite nicely there." The women growled but didn't rise to the bait, and instead began to free her curse seal, Hinata noticing the danger first as her chakra began to change.

"Sakura! Watch out!" Pushing the other girl out of the way, she felt the air brush her face as a blood red kunai flew past, striking a tree. She could see even as she turned to face the woman how the the kunai caused the chakra in the tree to die, poisoning it. As for the woman, Hinata fought the urge to chew on her lip in worry as she saw her topless form, red and hardened by the curse seal, with weapon handles sticking out from seals all over her body. She could also see that all the points she had managed to close burst back open from the force of her chakra going through them, a sign that worried her.

The woman sneered at Sakura, who had finally made it to her feet on the far side of the clearing. "Scared now, little girl?" Pushing off, the woman began her attack on Sakura. Blade flashing as they swung or were thrown at the other girl. For her part, Sakura was just managing to keep up, but Hinata could see how Sakura was fighting to keep from making any wrong step in her retreat from the weapons.

While the other woman's attention was captured, she sped through a long stream of hand seals, knowing that she lacked any jutsu's strong enough to turn the fight against her now stronger and faster cursed opponent. Instead she focused on protecting Sakura. She was not the closest friend to the pink haired girl, but she was just as much her friend as Naruto or anyone else was here, and she wouldn't let her die here. Ending the final seal, she released a large geyser of water around Sakura just in time as she tripped over a tree root, the water coming up to block the strike of a tanto that was aimed to stab down into her collar bone.

Hinata breathed a sigh of relief at making it in time. Once started, the water should surround Sakura for long enough for her to ready herself without fear of being attacked. The only downside was she had isolated Sakura from the fight as well, and the other had turned her attention to her now."I'm going to enjoy cutting you up little girl. The look on your friends faces will be priceless." she hissed as she lunged at Hinata.

Hinata couldn't see a way to escape the inevitable outcome of this fight, especially now that she herself had isolated Sakura from helping her. For some reason though, even as she saw the women coming in ready to kill her, Hinata could only imagine how Naruto-kun might act if he found out she had been killed here. Would he mourn her for a long time, or would he never even notice her leaving. No matter how well they had gotten to know each other in the past few days, it had only been just that, a few days time together.

Without thinking she dodged, barely avoiding the thrust of a poisoned nodachi she had pulled from her stomach. "Lost the will to fight already little girl? Maybe I should keep you alive to watch me kill that little blond demon friend you all followed here. Would that give you a bit more life, perhaps?" Hinata's head shot up as her hand thrust out, connecting with the stomach of the woman and sending in a surge of chakra meant to destroy her internal organs. Though her curse seal chakra protected her, Hinata could see the damage she had caused to her inner system. By no means was she beaten, but that would slow her down.

"You will not touch any of my friends. I swear on that." Her voice was so calm it surprised herself, and she slid into the stance she alone used out of her household, her hands beginning to weave around herself even as the other woman spit out some blood and came back in. Focusing more chakra into her invisible strands of chakra than she ever had before, she waited until the woman was nearly right on top of her, and stepped to the side, wrapping her strands around the short sword she had produced. With a flick of her wrist, she caused the other woman's hand to turn back on itself, her body's momentum carrying her into her own knife, instantly destroying her chakra as well. It only took a minute before she collapsed to the ground dead, curse seal fading, leaving her bleeding on the ground, eyes staring blankly into the sky.

Moving over to the still active geyser, Hinata focused until she found the flow of chakra she had put into the water, and performed a seal to end it's movement. As soon as the water dropped, Sakura jumped out, nearly punching Hinata before realizing who it was that had dispelled the jutsu. "Hinata! What happened?" Hinata nodded her head and turned her gaze from the corpse, trying to avoid looking at what she was forced to do. It was silent for a moment before Sakura placed her hand on Hinata's shoulder, drawing her attention back out of herself. "What of the others?"

Hinata pushed more chakra into her Byakugan, looking outwards into the surrounding forest. "Lee-san and Neji-niisan seem to be all right from here, currently a hundred yards to our north. I'm not sure why, but they seem to be storing a body away from the open. Shino-kun and Kiba-kun are about two hundred yards to our east, finishing off an opponent as we speak." Pushing her Byakugan even further to try and find Shikamaru-kun's team, Hinata gasped. "Ino-san is carrying Chouji-kun and Shikamaru-kun this way from the north west, about three hundred yards away. They appear to be hurt, and she is struggling to try and get them here."

Sakura cursed, she would have to go see to that, but Naruto was still alone, and outside of Hinata's range to find out if he was all right. She couldn't leave Shikamaru and Chouji injured, though. "Hinata-chan, please go help Naruto. I'll gather and heal everyone else, are you able to keep fighting if need be?" Sakura gave her a pleading look, possibly wondering if there was any doubt that Hinata would go help Naruto-kun. Sakura knew how she felt about the other boy, yet with things being as they were with Kiba, she wondered if Sakura believed she disliked Naruto now.

Nodding, Sakura gave her a small hug, "Thank you. Make sure to get that idiot back here safely so we can escape." Turning around, she began running in the direction of Ino-san, leaving Hinata to run back to where they had first been attacked, all the while wondering if it was wrong that it had been Naruto-kun who had motivated her to fight, and not Kiba-kun.

Naruto shifted slightly in the tree he was hiding in, waiting for an opening to appear in Sasuke's guard. Even he knew that it wasn't going to come, and stealth wasn't his sort of thing. He had to get back to help the others, and somehow convince Sasuke to come with him, but the bastard had just started swinging the moment the others had left. If not for his earlier use of shadow clones and a well timed jutsu to create the fog that was only now beginning to clear, he might have been in deep trouble with that blade of his. As it was, Sasuke just stood there, katana held up, the chidori's energy flowing up and down it's length while he waited.

It wasn't like how it had been when he had found him with Sai and the others. They were alone now, Orochimaru probably watching from a safe distance, and Sasuke was determined to kill him. The only way Naruto could think of to convince him he was right about coming back was to kick his ass, but that wouldn't be easy. Sasuke had always proved the much better fighter with those damned eyes of his, and Naruto could only land a hit if he were surprised or already committed to his attack.

Performing a stream of hand seals, he prepared himself before leaving the tree to meet Sasuke. If trickery were the only way to beat the crap out of Sasuke, the other boy was about to get the prank of his lifetime.

When he felt he was a safe distance away from Sasuke, he performed a seal to blow the fog away, revealing Sasuke standing there calmly staring at him. "Finally decided to fight, Dobe? I didn't figure you for the stealth type." Naruto snarled and reached into his pocket, pulling out something and throwing it at Sasuke's feet. Sasuke's cool look broke for a second with a look of anger at a scratched hitai-ite lying at his feet.

"Put it on." Naruto stared at Sasuke, as the other boy snorted. "Unlike those years ago when I was still weak enough to actually consider you powerful, I hardly see any reason to call us equals now, Naruto."

Naruto fought back a growl as he pulled out a kunai. "Then I'll make you put it on, asshole."He hurled the kunai at Sasuke, who side stepped it easily, but instead of fighting, he spun around and threw his own kunai at Naruto's striking at a kage bunshin that had appeared in the shadow of the Kunai, letting it explode in a puff of smoke. "Really now, Naruto. It's been three years yet you still bore me. Let's end this quickly, shall we?" Sasuke turned back to smirk at Naruto before releasing his seal, his body turning gray and sprouting appendages from his back that looked like grotesque impressions of hands. Fighting down the shiver that the curse seal's chakra gave him, Naruto summoned shadow clones, forming a Rasenshuriken in his hand, letting the clones disappear when they finished their tasks.

Sasuke's eyebrow lifted in curiosity, "So you HAVE learned something new Dobe. Now tell me, does it actually do anything useful?" Naruto grinned, "You'll have to find out, and then I can tell you more about it back in Konoha after it kicks your ass."

Sasuke snorted, "Without that fox of yours, don't get out of your depth, Naruto."

"Scared, Sasuke?" Sasuke gave him a hard look before sheathing his sword and lifting his right arm above his head, a chidori suddenly blazing into life. "Hardly."

The two boys rushed each other, energy building between the two as their attacks grew closer. Right before impact, Naruto nodded, and the hitai-ite he had thrown to Sasuke exploded in a puff of smoke, revealing itself as a clone that wrapped itself around Sasuke's legs, destroying his balance. Taking the opportunity, Naruto shot in like a bullet and striking high on the arm with the chidori to move it out of the way, Naruto unleashed the Rasenshuriken on Sasuke.

Naruto could see Sasuke's eye widen in shock and anger as he processed what was going on. His control on the Chidori faltered and it died out before the force of Naruto's attack sent him flying back further into the clearing, his curse seal already receding as he began to lose consciousness. Naruto had held back enough power that he wasn't worried about a fatal blow, but his cursed form was definitely strong, and he had to use a good deal of chakra to defeat Sasuke. But it had been a decisive victory, and he had to stop the urge to jump up and down in excitement, he still hadn't forgotten that Orochimaru and that traitor Kabuto were still out there somewhere.

Taking a deep breath, he jumped a bit when he head someone yell out "Naruto-kun!" behind him Spinning around at the shout, he saw Hinata run into the clearing, her byakugan active and head moving back and forth. "Um, I saw the battle, congratulations."

Naruto grinned, "Thanks, Hinata-chan. I guess you won too then by the looks of it." Hinata looked guilty for a moment before nodding. "I had some motivation to help me win." She stood there silently for a moment before looking up suddenly, remembering what she had come about. "Oh no! I'm so sorry about not saying it right away. Orochimaru will probably attack us himself soon. We need to escape while we can, Sakura-san is getting everyone else and healing them as we speak."

Naruto shook his head slowly. "No, I can't do that. Take Sasuke with you to the others and escape. I will try to meet up with you when this is all over."

Hinata just stared blankly at him, not following his reasoning at all. She knew he liked to fight, but she must of thought that he had to know this was suicide. Naruto saw the confusion and clarified himself, "I know I don't stand much chance of winning, especially by myself, but you said it yourself that everyone else is hurt, right?" Hinata nodded. "I know Orochimaru won't let us all escape if we ran, he would just send more people after us or come up with some trap. If I fight him here, maybe I can buy you guys the time to escape. I mean it when I say all of you will make it home alive. Besides, if I am strong enough to beat Sasuke in one hit, then how hard can one no good snake be?" Naruto flashed her a grin and she saw her bite her lip, so long as she didn't see that he had only won by a well timed trick, he knew she wouldn't be able to argue with him.

"I will stay with you too, then." Naruto hadn't expected that reply at all. "But Hinata-chan, it's dangerous, you've never faced this guy before, and well since Tsunade briefed everyone, you know about why I have a better chance than most now I'm sure." Hinata nodded, her eyes glancing down at his stomach for a moment before locking her pale lavender eyes on his. "I know, Naruto-kun. I know I'm not that strong, but maybe with my own special abilities I can somehow help, and I am still relatively fresh as well. I refuse to let you fight him alone, we all will be going back to Konoha." Her voice was soft as usual, but for once there was an iron core to it that Naruto couldn't find anyway to break. Looking away from those eyes of hers, he stared at the ground, "Thank you, Hinata-chan. That means a lot to me."

They stood there for a moment before a cough broke the silence, causing both to jump. Sasuke had pushed himself to his elbows and knees. "If you two are done with your little romance, Orochimaru is almost here. I can feel him coming closer." Pushing himself to his feet, he swayed a bit before Naruto ran over to steady him. "I will tell the rest of your team what has happened, though I expect if you brought those idiots, they will come here to their deaths as well to help you."

Naruto looked between Hinata and Sasuke, unsure of what to do. Hinata for her part seemed unconcerned as she came over and broke off a part of a soldier pill and fed it to Sasuke, not enough to help him fight again, but enough to steady himself. "Do we have your word on this, Sasuke-san?" She stared into his eyes, causing Sasuke to actually fidget for a moment, yet she wouldn't take her gaze off of his.

Unable to decide on a better course of action, Sasuke glared at her for a moment before pushing off Naruto and heading to the edge of the clearing, stopping when he reached it. "If the dobe can get that powerful in Konoha, then I shouldn't have a problem." With that he took off in the direction Hinata had come, going to warn their teammates of the danger.

Naruto looked at Hinata, seeing her giving him a small smile. Returning it, he quickly explained the plan he had in mind for when Orochimaru got there.

**End Chapter **

Sorry about the Wait. I had some tough family issues and school issues to handle that took up my time. As well, an important note about this chapter that caused some of the delay. In my original outline, I had one fight before this with Lee and Neji that I just couldn't write well for the life of me, so I skipped it. Given the nature of the chapter, it can be left out, so it wont harm flow, but I do plan to add it in later since it has some nice evil things done by Lee and Neji in there.

Also, I may be different than most about how much Naruto cares about people finding out about the fox. I really don't think at this point in his life he cares as much as he might have, so I let it be a given fact that Tsunade that had explained it all before hand.

Also, I have tried to adopt a new writing style to some degree. I got too bogged down in details, and while this still feel quite fast paced to me, I think I did a good job of getting details in. If you like this way of writing better, please let me know.

Now, I don't care if this is over used, I am going to ask for reviews from you people who actually read this stuff I write. It's the best way for me to get better, by feedback. And this story is still a means for me to improve writing, so I humbly ask you for just a moment of your time to give a review.

Thanks much.

And one more thing, Sasuke deserved the one hit loss. Feels good to have pretty boy's ego beaten down.


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